Lee ignores Top Rank deal to focus on Vera fight

ANDY LEE is determined to ignore talk of a major promotional deal with Top Rank and concentrate on making an impression in the ring as he makes his US national television debut tonight.

The unbeaten middleweight from Limerick will be the main event on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights card as he puts his 15-0 (12 KOs) record on the line against former Contenders’ star Brian Vera (15-1, 9 KOs) in a 10-round bout at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

Lee, 23, fights out of Emanuel Steward’s Kronk Gym stable in Detroit and his trainer/manager is moving the rising Irish southpaw into position for a world title challenge within the next 12 months. That ambition will be helped considerably when the final details of a promotional deal with Bob Arum’s Top Rank organisation are ironed out in the next week or so, as Arum also handles current undisputed middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik.

Lee, who lives alongside Kronk stablemate Johnathan Banks in Steward’s Detroit house, is tentatively scheduled to fight on the undercard of Pavlik’s first title defence this June against Wales’ Gary Lockett — the fight that would have been Derryman John Duddy’s challenge had he not succumbed to a bad cut during his last outing on February 23. And word from the Arum camp is that, if broadcasters HBO agree to a three-fight live broadcast, they would want to match Lee in the opening bout against another potential challenger in Marco Antonio Rubio, a 27-year-old Mexican with a 41-4-1 (36KOs) record, mostly compiled at light-middleweight.

Making that fight would be contingent on Lee taking care of business tonight against 26-year-old Texan Vera and that is the only thing occupying the Irish middleweight prospect’s mind right now.

“To be honest, I want to leave all that stuff to the lawyers and Emanuel,” Lee said. “Emanuel was out in Vegas last weekend and talking with them and it’s coming along nicely. There is a lot of talking still to be done and there are a lot of people involved, but it should be sorted out in the next couple of weeks. But that’s their job not mine. I’m not thinking about it and I don’t want to hear about it. I’ve got a big fight here to think about.

“It should be a hard enough fight. From the tapes we’ve seen of him he loves to trade, throws a lot of overhand rights and hooks and he’s dangerous. You could be in trouble with him, but I should be alright.”

If you listen to Steward long enough you will be convinced that Lee will be more than alright. The veteran Hall of Fame trainer has been singing the Irish Olympian’s praises since before he made his professional debut in Detroit on March 10, 2006. Almost two years on and the man who put Lee in to spar with both Jermain Taylor, the middleweight king until Pavlik took him out last autumn, and IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, believes his latest protégé can be every bit as successful as them.

“In the next six or seven years, he can establish himself as one of the best middleweight champions of all time,” Steward said this week. “I think he has the talent, but more than that, he has a burning desire to be great, and he has a love for his sport. And I think those are the big factors that are going to make him become a great fighter.”

The American public will get to form their own opinions tonight when they tune into ESPN, but Lee is confident he can put on a show.

“I’m going to put on a good performance. If I can just go out and box and not get drawn into fight I should be all right.

“It’s not that I don’t like to fight, I do, just usually it’s when I’m in the gym. But this is a nice test for me and I’ll be on national TV, so this is a good fight for me to have.

“Equally if I don’t box that well that’s going to be the lasting impression, but it’s an exciting prospect to be on TV.”